How To Improve Background

[ttkelvin]

I want to get rid of all the clutter behind my gramma in this photo. PLease send me tips and ideas on how I can acheive this. She has passed away and I want to preserve this last photo taken of her.

http://www.retouchpro.com/gallery/sh...o=5392&cat=500

Thanks.

[mistermonday]

TTKelvin, welcome to RP!
The blue channel has good contrast. There are many ways to remove the background easily on this picture:

Quick Select Tool
Extract Filter
Background eraser
Channel Mask

I used the Quick Select tool in Photoshop CS3 to do the selection below in less than 2 minutes. Your image is quite pixelated. You should be able to get a crystal clear extraction with a high quality scan.

Regards,
Murray

[0lBaldy]

Originally Posted by ttkelvin

I want to get rid of all the clutter behind my gramma in this photo. PLease send me tips and ideas on how I can acheive this.http://www.retouchpro.com/gallery/sh...o=5392&cat=500
Thanks.

Tip.. blur background and darken it some and extra darkening on the highlights.. clone out the box..

Idea..try to get rid of the glare on the glasses and eyes

How?.. Masking, clonning, painting, Using Photoshop or compatible program

[superkoax]

My condolences, ttkelvin...

it's difficult to get this picture to look real if you attempt to put her on a new background...maybe if you experiment with shooting a new background image with less clutter, same angle and lighting...then you could work this...just my ideas....

[mashny]

Just feeling goofy...

[hawkeye60]

How about a vignette and just eliminate the background. Something like this...

[philbach]

What I have been doing recently.

I really like CS3's quick selection tool so instead of using the extraction tool to replace a background, I copy the layer and then select the area of interest and apply a layer mask. So nothing is lost during the extraction and you can paint the mask to make various adjustments.

[dmrdm]

Quick selection tool, magic wand, extraction tool, lasso tool, channels...or just a mask. Don't know what you want to do with her once you extract....but since she is sitting down and in a difficult pose...you'd have to have the right background to place her back into. I'd have to agree with the others that recommended blur the background or do a vingette. Good luck.

[lets_do_retouch]

to make it more natural.. you can darken the background or have it blurred. . tracing grandma out from the photo will do..just be sure that the sides of the traced photo is not too edgy. .

[maureeno]

Originally Posted by hawkeye60

How about a vignette and just eliminate the background. Something like this...

I think that's an excellent idea.

Maureen

[Mchilly]

You can use image masking such as clipping path to eliminate the background and enhance the color :-)

[Nan]

I blurred the background and then touched up the spots that still showed. Moved her over and attempted to build the end of the arm. I only spent a little time on the eye glass glare. Also did a color balance layer. It would all need more work still.
Nan

[MatthewMarshall]

I noticed this thread was a little old but after seeing that not much people worked on the image i decided to give it a try. I just lost my grandmother over the summer, so i took this to heart a little. I hope you like the result. Of course i could never make this look like it was done in a studio, but i hope its close.

HOW I DID IT
I used a backdrop from my backdrop website to give the photo a portrait look. and also used a mask to filter out the backdrop. also lens corrected the image, and did some basic color correct as well as get rid of shine and redude hard shadows using highlight/shadow tool.

[lurch]

Nice work, Matthew.

[Kraellin]

yup, very nice, matthew.

[Lorraine]

Beautiful work, Matthew, and thanks for the link to your backdrops.

Lorraine

[MatthewMarshall]

Originally Posted by lurch

Nice work, Matthew.

Originally Posted by Kraellin

yup, very nice, matthew.

Originally Posted by Lorraine

Beautiful work, Matthew, and thanks for the link to your backdrops.

Lorraine

Thanks everyone, I just hope the original person likes it.

[BagLady]

A bit late but here's my quick fix...

I used a gradient to create wall and carpet, added noise, blurred, applied layer masks and used a bit of d&b.

[philbach]

BagLady. Nice background. Believable and nice neutral color

[BagLady]

Thanks Phil!

BagLady